We’re talking about exercise order today, not across an entire program. You should do the fastest things first – speed, then power, then strength, then hypertrophy, then conditioning/endurance.

This isn’t some arbitrary sequence I came up with. If you do the inverse, you’ll reduce your speed, won’t be as strong, and will be less powerful. Forget misguided notions about mindset or mental toughness here. What we’re talking about is how to program optimally from a physiological standpoint. Performing conditioning exercises first will make you more tired and reduce the benefit of subsequent speed, power, and strength. 

The inverse isn’t the same: putting speed first doesn’t have a detrimental effect on conditioning, nor does putting power exercises before those targeting hypertrophy compromise the latter. Another thing to consider is the possibility of injury. Imagine you ask an athlete to do a high rep push-up and pull-up circuit for time with high reps. Now their shoulder muscles are fatigued, and you get them to do heavy overhead presses explosively. They’re at far greater risk of getting hurt than if they’d done their power and strength work before that circuit. So save your hypertrophy, conditioning, and endurance for last.

We could apply this term in several ways, but for simplicity, let’s make it the answer to the question, “How many times a week are you training?” It’s not uncommon for some of the MMA guys and girls I work with to have 14 or more sessions per week (i.e. two to three times a day). But this wouldn’t be the case right before their next fight.

Frequency, like the other six variables mentioned here, is context-dependent. 

How do we progress the program over time? The concepts are few and the methods are many.

Coaches often say that their profession is both an art and a science. The science part is the concepts, while the art is the methods used to prompt a desired adaptation that gets athletes closer to their goals.

As long as your program is based on the concepts of performing a needs analysis to inform your goals, using progressive overload to balance stress and recovery, balancing SAID (specific adaptation to imposed demands) and LTAD (long-term athlete development), and maximize adherence, you’ll be likely to succeed.

Mathematically, volume = repetitions x sets. Such a calculation can help us better manage fatigue over time. We usually report volume as a weekly cycle for each exercise. Then you report that for each week in a mesocycle – let’s say over the course of eight weeks an athlete does 200 reps in week one, 300 in week two, and so on (that said, I wouldn’t typically advise varying volume by more than 10 percent each week, so don’t do that 200 to 300 jump without a specific reason).

You can also record volume load, which is simply sets x reps x weight. A lot of S+C practitioners prefer this because it provides a more detailed picture. Suppose athlete A’s volume was 200 reps, but they only lifted 50 pounds for each rep. Meanwhile, athlete B performed the same 200 reps but with 100 pounds. You can see how athlete B’s volume total would be much higher.

7. Rest